Someone old,
something new. You know Andrew Whiteman from Broken Social Scene, Apostle of
Hustle and many other projects. You don’t know his new collaborator Ariel
Engel, who sings the bulk of this material and brings out the best in Whiteman.
The lyrics on AroarA’s debut EP are by American poet Alice Notley, from her
2007 book of the same name, set here to original music made with primitive
cigar-box banjos and drum machines. Notley’s poems themselves reference old
folk songs, and even a Bob Dylan lyric about Blind Willie McTell, so
repurposing Notley’s words for modern avant-garde pop music taps into a natural
continuum. If that doesn’t intrigue you enough and you need a big namedrop, it
was recorded at Feist’s house.

Concept and
pedigree aside, it’s the music of AroarA that compels. Like the Los Lobos side
project Latin Playboys, AroarA takes traditional elements—Spanish pop, American
blues, Asian melodies, PJ Harvey—and tosses them in a digital kaleidoscope that
defies easy description. Engel’s compelling voice is the anchor: a confident
calm presence not unlike Feist or Daniela Gesundheit of Snowblink (who all
performed together at the 2012 Polaris Prize gala). The sonic density that
marked Whiteman’s last album as Apostle of Hustle has been stripped back; each
track contains only a few elements: sampler, two guitars and percussion, either
electronic, hand-played or of unknown origin.

These five songs
are as fulfilling as a full-length album, but they’re just the beginning: nine
more are due on AroarA’s debut album in June. (April 4)

Download (tracks
only have numbers as titles, as per the original poems; they don’t refer to
running order): “#11,” “#6,” “#2”

Arts and Crafts:
2003-2013 – Various Artists (Arts and Crafts)

Many people and
many artists across the country contributed to the explosion of great Canadian
music in the last decade, but it’s safe to say that Toronto label Arts and
Crafts were at the forefront of taking it all to the mainstream: first with
Broken Social Scene, whose Kevin Drew is a cofounder, then with Feist and many others.
Arts and Crafts has released many classic Canadian records, and it’s a safe bet
that a decade retrospective would be a worthy time capsule.

Sadly, it’s not.
The selection here appears to have been selected from a shuffle playlist,
albeit one that favours Broken Social Scene, Feist and Stars, with three tracks
each—odd for Stars, who have released just as many albums off the label as they
have on. Many artists are relegated to the “rarities” disc, hence people like
the Constantines, Hidden Cameras, Cold Specks, the Dears, Gonzales and
Snowblink are not necessarily on their A game. Bell Orchestre, who put out one
of the best albums in the label’s entire discography, is not found anywhere
here.

Listening to the
main disc gives further credence to the notion that the label has faltered the
most when it recruits from outside its immediate family: The Most Serene
Republic? Los Campesinos? New Buffalo? Dan Mangan? Well, at least Mangan sells a
lot of records and deserves to be here. The compiler does deserve some credit,
at least, for finding a listenable song by the Stills.

You probably own
the best Arts and Crafts albums already, and this compilation won’t shed much
light on the rest of the roster. Save your money and buy a ticket for their
June 8 anniversary show in Toronto featuring a one-off Broken Social Scene
reunion, Feist, Stars, Zeus, Cold Specks, Jason Collett and more—including
Hayden and Bloc Party, who are also absent from the comp. (April 18)

Download: “Islands
in the Stream” – Feist and the Constantines; “I Want a New Drug” – Apostle of
Hustle; “Apology” – Kevin Drew

The
Bicycles - Stop Thinking So
Much (Aporia)

This
Toronto pop band was beloved but underrated during their run in the 2000s;
after a four-year hiatus, they remind us what we’ve been missing by returning
from various other projects sounding entirely rejuvenated and more eclectic
than ever, not unlike a ’70s K-Tel collection where the only real through line
is an abundance of sunny California harmonies. Twee pop, country balladry, glam
rock, even some Rolling Stones swagger weave their way through these two- and
three-minute miracles, where each member brings their own songs to the
table—and drummer Dana Snell nearly steals the whole show with her opening
track, the lovely “Appalachian Mountain Station.” (April 25)

Download:
“Appalachian Mountain Station,” “Bandana Cat,” “Goldeneye”

James Blake –
Overgrown (Polydor)

This young Brit
wowed plenty with his 2011 debut, with its blend of innovative electronics,
live performance and Blake’s androgynous croon, as well as a dreamy Feist
cover. And yet anyone who heard Blake’s earlier instrumental EPs may well
have wondered why he appeared to have dropped the ball for his coming-out
party, with a collection of tracks that were neither great songs nor
particularly cutting edge: clearly this man had more potential than just a
great voice.

Blake more than
makes up for that on Overgrown, which is both as sonically stunning and
seductive as what is ostensibly a pop album could possibly be. He’s obvious
invested more time into the songwriting process instead of coasting on his
studio wizardry, and yet he’s not about to embrace clichés. What would have
happened had Joni Mitchell fled California in the early ’70s and moved to Berlin
to work with Brian Eno? They would have spawned James Blake. (April 18)

Download: “Overgrown,”
“Retrograde,” “Digital Lion”

The Burning
Hell - People (weewerk)

“Inside everyone
one of us is a comedian, a cult leader and an amateur rapper.” So says Mathias
Kom, singer and songwriter at the core of The Burning Hell. He should know:
he’s all three. His band is an open invitational depending on what city he’s
living in at the moment (Peterborough, Whitehorse, now St. John’s); he’s a
verbose wordsmith who claims he writes songs while listening to the Wu-Tang
Clan; and he’s wry, witty, and occasionally hilarious.

Kom writes songs
that ask questions no one else dares to ask—never mind set to music. Why aren’t
cults ever any fun? Why, as teenagers, were we prematurely nostalgic for the
age we actually were at the time? Why not set the legend of Loki to a
seven-minute rock epic? When Lionel Richie wrote “Hello,” was it you he was
looking for and not the blind girl in the video?

As Kom has shifted
from ukulele-wielding folk singer to stream-of-consciousness rock bandleader,
he’s less concerned with writing songs than he is using the music as a vehicle
for observational ramblings. It can be a recipe for disaster—his last album,
overburdened with pop culture references, was proof of this—but here he’s a
raconteur par excellence, holding court while his band keeps the party going
behind him. (April 25)

Download: “Grown-ups,”
“Amateur Rappers,” “Industrialists”

Dusted –
Total Dust (Hand Drawn Dracula)

Pick a
Piper – s/t (Mint)

Canadians
seem to excel at albums tailor-made for long-haul late-night drives: spooky
enough to suit the occasion, but with enough volume and pulse to keep the
driver awake. And why wouldn’t we? We, especially our touring musicians, spend
an inordinate amount of time in the wee hours travelling from town to faraway
town. Brian Borcherdt, a rock’n’roll lifer who’s spent almost 20 years on the
road, is no different, hence the sound of his new project, Dusted, made during
a rare time when he was standing still.

While
his all-live electronic band Holy Fuck was touring the world in the last eight
years and hailed as one of the best live acts in Canada, Borcherdt was busy
releasing quiet solo albums under his own name. When his bandmates took some
time off to raise babies, Borcherdt threw himself into Dusted, a collaboration
with producer/drummer Leon Taheny (Owen Pallett, Bruce Peninsula, Austra).

Taheny
brings out the best in Borcherdt’s songwriting; while his solo work was often
lovely but aimless, Taheny tightens everything up with minimal percussion and
dropping in ukulele, violin and minimal keyboards when necessary. Borcherdt,
who’s also in fine vocal form, plays chugging rhythm guitar with a steady hand
and both feet on effects pedals, looping it and running it through various
decaying levels of distortion. The result sounds unlike Borcherdt’s good pal
Chad Van Gaalen (especially in a live setting), but the album successfully
creates its own world, one where the late-night radio is your guiding light.

A
similar vibe prevails for K-W’s Pick a Piper, though further astray from the
indie rock singer/songwriter genre Dusted is working in. Waterloo drummer Brad
Weber has been performing with psychedelic electronica group Caribou for the
last decade, and that band’s sound inevitably bleeds through on Weber’s first
full-length as Pick a Piper. Comparisons are inevitable not only because of the
direct connection, but because very few, if any, other acts working today
successfully merge those elements, other than Atoms for Peace, the new band
from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke (who is a big Caribou fan). Like Caribou’s Dan
Snaith, Weber employs lovely melodies and Beach Boys harmonies, sets them to
club beats on both acoustic and electronic drums, and layers in various
percussive and jazz elements—and then lets you sit back and zone out. Vocalists
from Braids, Ruby Suns and Enon also show up to provide additional scenery
along the way, though they easily fade into the blurry background of a fascinating
journey. (April 4)

Download
Pick a Piper: “Cinders and Dust,” “Once Were Leaves,” “South to Polynesia”

Iron and Wine’s Sam
Beam introduced himself to us many years ago as a solo, fingerpicking
singer/songwriter. As his popularity grew, his arrangements swelled and he
slowly shifted into swampy, New Orleans psychedelic funk that owed a few debts
to Dr. John’s more outré output. Here, however, it sounds like he took a more
marked left turn: by getting happy.

Ghost on Ghost is
notable for sounding much sunnier than any other Iron and Wine album; the
preponderance of major keys helps. For an album with “ghost” in its title, Beam
has shifted from spookier sonics into opiated bliss, California soft rock that
could be a funkier Fleetwood Mac. Longtime producer Brian Deck continues to
provide plenty of tasty tricks underneath the steady calm of Beam’s voice; just
because the music is pleasant doesn’t mean it can’t be multi-layered and
sophisticated. The other key difference is the increased role of a horn
section, providing not just soul shots but even embarking on bebop jazz
breakdowns on tracks like “Lover’s Revolution”—didn’t see that coming.

It’s easy to
underestimate Iron and Wine, but Sam Beam has just given us yet another reason
why we never should. (April
18)

Download: “Joy,” “Low
Light Buddy of Mine,” “Winter Prayers”

Kacey Musgraves -
Same Trailer, Different Park (Universal)

This
24-year-old Texas artist is notable most for what she is not: she’s far removed
from the gloss of new country—no crunching guitars or synths here—yet
conventional enough to target the same market; a year older than Taylor Swift,
she writes poignant, homespun and youthful observations without sounding like a
15-year-old Twilight fan. Musgraves has a sweet enough voice, though
unremarkable; the appeal is her songwriting. Her first single features the
opening line, “If you ain’t got two kids by 21, you’re probably going to die
alone / at least that’s what tradition told you.” That, and her love of minor
chords, makes you wonder how she ever wound up a contestant on Nashville Star
(where she placed seventh). This, her fourth album but major-label debut, sounds
like the love child of Lucinda Williams and Fred Eaglesmith, with trace
elements of teen angst found in a line like, “It’s a fine line between telling
a joke and twisting the knife.” The album has already topped the U.S. country
charts and sold half a million copies in three weeks, and it sounds like this
well is just going to get deeper. (April 11)

Download:
“Merry Go ’Round,” “My House,” “Dandelion”

New Country Rehab -
Ghost of Your Charms (Kelp)

The name of this
band suggests that they’re tried and true traditionalists bucking against the
slick new country scene. Well, they do replace gloss with grit, but the
muscular, modern arrangements here aren’t all that far off from stadium-size
country music—or Bruce Springsteen circa The Rising. This ain’t no Hank
Williams revival act (see: Daniel Romano). Frontman John Showman is not only a
convincing belter, but he’s a fine fiddler player, and its those textures that
set this band apart from every other roots rock act in Canada. Producer Chris
Stringer (Timber Timbre, Snowblink) captures the live energy effectively: this
is a record that demands to be played loud. Too bad the performances and the
production outshine the songwriting, something that matters a whole lot less on
stage, which is obviously this band’s forte. (April 25)

Ford
Pier is one of Canada’s musical MVPs, playing with members of the Rheostatics,
NoMeansNo, backing up arty singer/songwriters Veda Hille and Christine Fellows,
and serving time in punk legends D.O.A., cowpunk pioneers Jr. Gone Wild and
reggae band Roots Roundup. What does Pier get up to on his own terms? Tightly
controlled jazz-punk chaos in a power-trio setting that celebrates “the gift of
life” one minute while decrying destruction and banality the next. Pier doesn’t
do anything simply: every track here twists and turns inside out and yet never
spirals out of control, thanks in part to a phenomenal rhythm section that seem
to understand every synapse in Pier’s brain. It’s all overwhelming on first
listen; sometimes you wish Pier didn’t feel the need to change chords every two
beats. But Pier’s invention and magnetism—and brevity—carry the day. Huzzah,
indeed. (April 11)

Download:
“When We Were Poor,” “The Gift of Life,” “Newton and the Counterfeiters”

Cam Penner – To
Build a Fire (Rawlco Radio)

Cam Penner is the
kind of guy who wanders up to your folk-festival campfire and casually starts
playing a few songs that sound like howling winds set to blues stomps that
suddenly shut up all the drunks, until everyone is spellbound wondering exactly
who this travelling stranger is. That’s just how he rolls: Penner is a
wandering troubadour who has lived and worked all over the continent
(“sometimes I wonder if I’m running or being chased”), performing songs with
choruses like “may the good Lord take you in self-defence.” He opens this, his
fifth album, with a brass instrumental; the Everlast-esque single “Memphis”
drops a drum machine into the rhythm. But for the most part, Penner stays true
to his cabin-in-the-woods aesthetic, drawing you in with tales of travel and
dollops of inspiration for tough times. (April 25)

Download: “Whiskey
Lips,” “No Consequence,” “Memphis”

The
Sapphires – Various Artists (Sony)

It’s been over 20
years since The Commitments, one of the finest and funniest movies about
rock’n’roll ever made, in which a band of ragged Irish misfits attempt to make
American soul music. And unlike 1990, classic R&B is back in style in full
force, so the idea of a new film soundtrack stacked with actors singing
faithful versions of Motown and Stax classics won’t seem an overworked concept
for anyone too young to remember either The Commitments or The Blues Brothers.
Plus, this time the artists doing the reappropriation of African-American
culture are Australian Aborigines.

But do we need yet
another version of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” or “Land of 1,000 Dances”?
(Supplementary question: does CCR’s “Run Through the Jungle” need to appear on
yet another soundtrack of a Vietnam film?) The cinematic twist this time is the
’60s story of Australian Aborgine women, who had only recently been granted
political and legal rights, who were recruited to form an R&B band to
entertain American troops in Vietnam. The story sells the movie, but all you
really need to hear is actress Jessica Mauboy open her mouth: she is every bit
the equal of Diana Ross, Carla Thomas, Gladys Knight and Mavis Staples, and she
even pulls off Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” and Arthur
Lyman’s “Yellow Bird.” On the one modern-sounding track here, “Gotcha,” she
enters Beyoncé territory, signalling that she’s poised for much more than a
fluke film role. (April
11)

Download: “Gotcha,”
“What a Man,” “I’ll Take You There”

Telekinesis
– Dormarion (Merge)

People
continue to whine about lacklustre new Weezer albums, while young Michael
Benjamin Lerner, a.k.a. Telekinesis, is now on his third flawless record of
anthemic power pop. What gives? Lerner is a master of melancholic lyrics set to
sunny melodies, crushing guitars, fuzzy bass and new wave keyboards, to say
nothing of his own buoyant drumming. He gets production help this time out from
Spoon drummer Jim Eno, like Lerner himself a multi-tasking percussionist. Eno
not only brings out Lerner’s pre-existing strengths, he also drops a drum
machine on him and plays up an ’80s influence on several tracks. And majestic
closing track “You Take It Slowly” is the song you keep hoping the reunite
Pixies would get around to writing. (April 4)

Download:
“Power Lines,” “Laissez-Faire,” “Ever True”

Rokia
Traoré – Beautiful Africa (Nonesuch)

This
Malian musician has collaborated with novelist Toni Morrison, Led Zeppelin
bassist John Paul Jones, and toured with Blur’s Damon Albarn. She’s the
daughter of a diplomat who was posted to the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.
She studied sociology in Brussels. This, her fifth album, is produced by PJ
Harvey sideman John Parish. And yet after Beautiful Africa, it’s unlikely
she’ll need such name-dropping to be remembered.

She’s a
stunning guitar player, steeped in Malian blues (and one of the few female
instrumentalists from that scene), but it’s her voice that’s entirely
captivating: though she’s capable of projecting, she’s at her most powerful
when she applies her strength at a lower volume, with an ever-so-slight tremolo
that’s nothing short of chilling, especially on the epic nine-minute ballad
N’Teri. Parish gives her a stripped-down backing: a minimalist funky drummer,
an n’goni player and a bassist, all used sparingly.

Traoré
recently relocated with her son to Paris from Bamako, which is threatened by
Islamist insurgents who, among other atrocities, want to ban music in one of
the most musically rich regions of the world. Her lyrics are in French, so I
can’t assess their political content (if any), but her voice alone is
resilience and beauty embodied. (April 25)

Download:
“Sikey,” “Melancolie,” “Tuit Tuit”

Joshua
Van Tassel - Dream Date (Backward Music)

“Dream date”
doesn’t refer here to a fantasy romance; it’s about an appointment with an
imaginative, abstract, haunting and playful environment. Van Tassel is an
in-demand drummer and multi-instrumentalist for many Toronto
singer/songwriters; left to his own devices, he constructs carefully
constructed melodic and cinematic instrumentals of all varieties: propulsive,
subdued, acoustic instruments manipulated electronically or left to shine on
their own strengths. He believes in brevity—only one song here is longer than
five minutes—and every sonic layer is entirely deliberate; there’s very little
clutter. He does invite two vocalists into the fold—an uncharacteristically gut-wrenching
Justin Rutledge, and a soaring Kate Rogers—for two of the album’s strongest
songs, but those are by no means the most melodic. Van Tassel has charted an
eclectic sonic journey where Calexico, Patrick Watson and the Rheostatics are
fellow travellers. (April
11)

In the first three
songs of the first new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album in four years, we hear: a raw
post-punk song that culminates with a full-on gospel choir: a brooding,
haunting lullaby that samples a New York City subway car as a rhythm track; an
unhinged, nonsensical shriekfest that hearkens back to the very first tracks
that put this once-incendiary trio on the map. After the smash success of their
electro-disco makeover on 2009’s It’s Blitz!, it sounds like the band has no
idea what it should be anymore and doesn’t care. Neither should we, if they
sound this good flailing in all directions.

No doubt it helps
that singer Karen O has returned to New York from California to join her
bandmates; Mosquito is much more informal and loose than this band has been
since their debut full-length. Invite long-dormant Kool Keith alias Dr. Octagon
to rap on “Buried Alive”? Why not. A Cramps-style sci-fi goof-off about alien
conspiracy theories? Of course. And then there are the garage rock rave-ups,
the ballads, the disco songs and everything in between. O has lost none of her
potency as an ever-elastic vocalist—the bonus tracks include three acoustic
demos where she’s pitch-perfect and gorgeous, as well as a howling, snarling
live version of the title track—and her bandmates rarely resort to rock
clichés.

If their former
comrades in the Strokes—another band who defined New York City and rock and
roll’s comeback in the early 2000s—are getting successively sleepier with each
release, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs return fully invigorated. (April 18)